Chip's 8, Mustangs 5

Hamden,CT.

On Thursday night, both Chip's and the New Haven Mustangs came ready to play, but only one would leave victorious. That team would be Chip's who defeated the Mustangs 8-5 to win the inaugural SCHL Championship.

The Mustangs opened the scoring when forward Mike Pomichter put a shot past Chip's goalie Chris Groleau after taking a pass from forward Dan Mauriello. Two minutes later, forward Sean Donohue scored after receiving a pass from forward Kyle Amarone to put his team ahead 2-0. Chip's answered back when forward Bryan Leitch sent a pass to forward Tylyer Hancock streaking down the right side boards who then got off a quick shot from the top of the face off circle that found the back of the net beating Mustangs goalie Dan Ells to cut the lead down to 1 goal. Then with 37 seconds remaining in the first period, Leitch picked up the puck behind the Mustangs goal and dished a pass to defenseman Jay Pemberton who one timed a shot into the lower left corner to tie the game at 2 a piece.

Much of the second period saw both teams playing very conservative, making very few mistakes defensively. The Mustangs went on the powerplay when Pemberton was called for cross-checking but Chip's killed off the penalty, giving the Mustangs no chance to setup in their zone. This type of play would continue from both sides up until 5:47 remaining in the period when Chip's would score 4 consecutive goals from forward Scott Page, and a natural hat-trick from Hancock who finished the game with 4 goals. Chip's held a 6-2 lead going into the third period.

Things began to get worse for the Mustangs after Chip's would score two more times on goals from Page, and Leitch who earned the first star of the game after recording 1 goal and 5 assists. The Mustangs now trailing 8-2, started to pick up the pace and would score 3 goals in the last 6 minutes of the third period. Donohue and Pomichter both scored their second goals of the game, and defenseman Dan Hearn made his way through traffic to deke Groleau and slide a backhand shot on the ice into the net. Despite their efforts, the Mustangs fell short by the end of the game still trailing by 3 goals.

Groleau finished the night with 30 saves, and Ells finished with 37 saves. The teams faced each other 4 times over the course of the season and split wins, with Chip's winning when it counted most. With the next SCHL season set to begin on Sunday January 9th, 2011, expect both teams to have plenty more exciting games to come in the near future.